Ask the Cincinnati Reds.
They did it Saturday night in Great American Ball Park against the Tampa Bay Rays.
How does a team score four runs in two innings with one hit?
Ask the Cincinnati Reds.
They did it in the sixth and seventh innings — two runs and no hits in the sixth and two runs and one hit in the seventh.
How does a team score all six runs in a game after two outs?
Ask the Cincinnati Reds.
They did it Saturday to win their third straight game and 15th in their last 21 as they creep ever closer to the elusive last wild card slot.
How does a pitcher give up one run and two hits over six innings and not get a win?
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Ask Reds starter Andrew Abbott, who did just that but didn’t get the win. But he doesn’t care. His team won.
Leadoff hitter TJ Friedl was on base four times, three via walks, and scored twice.
“It’s just playing the game hard,” Friedl told reporters after the game. “We’re playing good clean baseball all the way around. Guys are picking each other up with two-out RBIs all the way through.
“That’s our identitfy, we aren’t going to hit home runs all the time,” he added. “That’s our game. We got two outs in an inning, we just put good at bats together and passing the baton.”
Of the upcoming trade deadline, Friedl said, “It’s huge right now and everybody knows it. We are just going out each and every day to play our best ball. That’s all we can control, go out on the field and play our best ball.”
Entering the bottom of the sixth, the Reds had one hit and that was a ball hit by Elly De La Cruz in the first inning that left fielder Christopher Morel lost in the sun. The ball bounced on the warning track and hopped over the wall for a ground rule double.
And that was it.
Abbott held the Rays to one hit through five innings until Yandy Diaz homered over the center field wall leading off the sixth for a 1-0 Tampa Bay lead.
Then things turned bizarre, all in a positive way for the Reds.
Tampa Bay starter Ryan Pepiot grew up in Indianapolis and as a kid was a Reds fan who attended many games in GABP, dreaming of the day he might play there.
And there he was on the mound Saturday, but for the Rays, not the Reds. And for five innings he held the Reds to no runs and the misjudged hit by De La Cruz.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
But he walked Friedl with one out in the sixth, one of the three walks drawn by Friedl and one of seven walks issued by Rays pitchers.
Matt McLain grounded behind second and Friedl beat the flip to second base. De La Cruz grounded out, putting runners on third and second with two outs.
Austin Hays hit a hard ground ball at Rays shortstop Taylor Walls, rated MLB’s best shortstop at saving runs. He booted it, an error, two runs scored... two runs on no hits and a 2-1 Reds lead.
Graham Ashcraft gave up a run in the seventh on a 2-and-2 pitch to pinch-hitter Josh Lowe. It came after rookie umpire Willie Traynor called a ball on what appeared to be strike three. That tied it, 2-2.
The most bizarre half inning was about to begin in the bottom of the seventh with the Reds batting.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
It began with a 3-and-2 walk to Spencer Steer. Jake Fraley took a called strike three on a pitch that appeared to be in the same locale as the one Traynor called a ball on Lowe. Reds manager Tito Francona gave Traynor some face-to-face lip service and was ejected.
Noelvi Marte flied to the base of the wall for the second out, score still tied, 2-2, with Steer on first. Friedl walked for the third time.
Matt McLain had a 1-and-2 count on him when Rays pitcher Bryan Baker jnjured his leg and had to come out. Left-hander Garrett Clevinger took Baker’s place and inherited the 1-and-2 count with two outs.
He threw three straight balls and walked McLain, filling the bases for Elly De La Cruz, homerless in 26 straight games. Who needed a homer?
Clevinger quickly barged ahead 0-and-2, then piddled around trying to get De La Cruz to chase a bad pitch. The count went to 3-and-2 with the crowd of 39,848, many wearing their free Hawaiian shirts, chanting, “Elly, Elly, Elly.”
He blooped a shallow ball that plopped safely into the center field grass for two runs on the only hit of the inning, the only hit in the last two innings, but four runs across.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
De La Cruz is hitting .500 (7 for 14) with the bases loaded.
Asked how he survived from 0-and-2, De La Cruz told reporters, “I just never give up. I know I got to 0-and-2 real quick but I just never give up, man. I keep fighting and I get a hit.
“I like the big moment,” he said about the full-count, the bases loaded, two outs. “I like the chance to make something happen. You hit the ball, things are going to happen.”
That made it 4-2 and De La Cruz had the Reds’ only two hits through seven innings. But they put together four singles, the last three with two outs, to score two more in the eighth.
“We’re playing really good right now,” said De La Cruz. “I think we got something going on and we just have to keep pushing.”
NEXT GAME
Who: Tampa Bay at Cincinnati
When: 1:40 p.m., Sunday, July 27
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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